“Reformed Lesson Cards” were distributed in Sunday Schools.  Each card carried a picture and Bible verse; and, on the back, a brief sermon and quiz.  After twelve lessons, there was a review card.  The above card was handed out on June 27, 1897.  And here is Lesson XII, from the week before.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Some anti-depressants carry warnings that they may increase suicidal tendencies.

food-doofus

What part of “what part of” don’t you understand?

Joan of Arc’s story arc

newscaster slip: “chiefs of stash” for “chiefs of staff”

Are deists monarchists?

If you give a man a fish, you can feed him for a day.
If you give a fish a man, it will only swim away.

many a slap twixt cup and lap

I love the word “the”: the barest slip of a word, a breath.

agnostic / diagnostic

The clown holds up a paper hoop;
The dog thinks he’s a nincompoop.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

We have another “Old Maid” deck to add to the survey.  This one is from the Whitman Publishing Company: there’s no date, but it’s fairly early in the illustrious career of the Old Maid brigade.  It was hard to choose, but I’ve picked Mr. I. Never for his unusual anatomy and coloration.

And here’s the Old Maid:

There is yet another Old Maid on the rules card; so I’ll add her to the gallery:

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

If you’re so smart, how come you’re not intelligent?

Children hate everything they learn in school.  Perhaps we should re-institute school prayer.

Beat the drum and sound the trumpet!
Take the garbage out and dump it!

The penny is unique, currency worth so little it’s liminal: a financial schwa.

a book whose text negates itself as you read

Let’s demonize angels.

Connect the don’ts.

Why do we say “mere coincidence,” but not “mere causality”?

Yes, I’m wrestling with my demons, but they started it.

Objecting to music copied by hand, rather than by computer, is like objecting to food cooked in an oven rather than a microwave.

Don’t howl at the moon; how would you like it if it howled at you?

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Cold weather is here; now is the time to relax in a comfortable chair with a hot beverage.  May we recommend the Ullage Group Toddy?  It’s a simple drink: ginger tea, honey, and brandy.  We cannot guarantee that we were the first to combine those ingredients (ginger and brandy are, after all, soulmates), but we recommend it anyway.

The best results come from real ginger and real honey.  However, if you’re lazy (and laziness and toddies do go together), you can easily substitute ginger-honey crystals.  These convenient packets are available both with and without sugar; I prefer the unsugared, but you may differ.  My favorite brandy is mirabelle, made with the tasty little plums from the Lorraine; but ginger and honey overpower all other flavors, so I suggest spiking the cup with something less pricey.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Parker Brothers put out the “Quiz Kids Own Game Box” in 1940, based on the popular radio show.  It contained a variety of educational games: a map puzzle, anagram tiles, a board game, and several card games.  These cards seem to come from some kind of number game.  Unfortunately, the rules are missing from my copy, so you’ll have to make up your own.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Why are people so fond of positivism? Do they really trust their own senses and intellects?

I have another anecdote that shows my sister’s personality. She was a committed member of the Daughters of the American Revolution; when I mentioned that I thought they were wrong to bar Marian Anderson from Constitution Hall, her response was swift and hostile: “You don’t understand. Segregation was the law. They were upholding the law.”

toxic exotic

Another watershed: I just heard a radio commentator mention the discovery of Moses in the bulrushes, not as a passage in the Bible, but as a scene in the movie The Ten Commandments.

I hope that your amanuensis
Was counted in the latest census.

loggers with lagers

Did reports of angels, devils, gods and heavens come from elders with senile dementia? I also suspect that many folktales began as people simply telling their dreams.

Take back my plateful:
This dinner’s hateful.

One of life’s dirty little secrets: accomplishing something doesn’t necessarily accomplish anything.

The hippo’s mouth is very wide,
But it’s not safe to sit inside.

Does it never occur to Biblical literalists to read stories as parables? Parables are, after all, an ancient genre of religious instruction.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Gather around, students of “Old Maid,” I have another specimen.  It’s a 1968 version, from Milton Bradley.  The choice was difficult, but I’ve picked “Go Go Gertie” as particularly representative of the year.

And here’s the Old Maid.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

I don’t know much about Prince Robert de Rohan Courtenay.  He was, apparently, a familiar figure in Greenwich Village in the ’50s and ’60s; he claimed a number of grandiose titles, and was said to live in a cheap residential hotel around Times Square.  His name shows up in accounts of parties and funerals (he attended, for example, the services for Joe Gould and Hobo Dan O’Brien).  He was photographed by Diane Arbus, and featured in a portfolio in Harper’s Bazaar (November 1961).

I found some bits about him in an old issue of the Bowery News (#68, December 1960), and offer them here for those who, like me, are intrigued by the often overlooked history of New York City’s bohemian eccentrics.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

The old game of “Authors” was given a different twist in “Bible Authors,” published back in 1895 by the Zondervan Publishing House.  Samuel, Moses, Christ, and others (14 in all) are celebrated in these gray, but lushly ornamented, designs.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)